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Topic: Heart worries (Read 264 times)

For the past few weeks I've been relatively ok. Every now and again I would have anxiety related symptoms but could shrug them off or let my therapy take over and kick the anxiety monster in the butt. However for the last 3 days I've been anxious for no particular reason. Without going into too much detail I have a lot going on but nothing new to send me back into anxiety. 3 days ago I was eating dinner and felt really hot all of a sudden which sent me into panic. Of course by now I always have a pulse ox machine on hand and reassured myself that nothing was wrong. Still the anxiety was there and I ended up going to bed to sleep it off. Next morning I was fine but around the late afternoon/early evening I was uneasy again. My chest felt tight and my heart would feel light at times - freaking me out that there is something wrong with my heart. Of course this whole time my pulse was normal & my oxygen levels are normal and I even rode my horse for a good hour without physical issues. So that night I took a 10 mg dose of ativan and felt great the next morning. The chest discomfort was gone. But last night it came back just as I was going to sleep. I had my head on my pillow & just felt a heaviness in my chest & my head started to hurt. I thought I couldnt catch my breath but still my pulse ox told me everything was ok. This morning the heaviness in my chest is back & I'm freaking out. I want to go back to shrugging things off & not constantly second guessing my decision not to go to the doctor asap.

Anyone else have a few crappy days where they second guess their health anxiety? I really don't want to make a fool of myself and go to the ER (extreme I know) or arrange a doc visit for an EKG because my pulse/oxygen is always normal & I can do physical exercise without any issues. If the feeling in my chest would go away I would be set.

I definitely have the same problem - I can feel fine for awhile and totally trust that my heart is fine, then the chest pain comes back for a few days and suddenly I'm worried about my heart again! I had all the tests: multiple EKGs, bloodwork, and even an echo because they thought I had a valve defect. Everything was 100% okay. I also do CrossFit pretty regularly and have no issues with pain or tightness while I am working out.

Moral of that story is you're not the only one, but most likely neither of us have any heart problems to worry about! I find that if I can keep myself from panicking about it, I usually realize it's a muscle that is super tight and hurts when I move. So staying calm, while difficult, always helps!

Thanks MilSpouse for your reply. It definitely helped me feel better - which is why I can't put into words how much I appreciate this page.

The tightness is getting better since I had an assignment at work that made me focus on something else. It's just the uncertainty of it all I guess lol.Like you I never have issues during any level of physical exercise which should logically calm my nerves but every time an alarm rings that "this is it!".

Glad I could help! You're right - just knowing that someone else is experiencing the same thing is reassuring. That happened a lot when all this first started for me. I also started trying to journal the days that I have a lot of chest pain. I write down what I'm feeling and everything that happened that day. I can almost always pinpoint something stressful that contributed!